FOUR
FOUR HOW GOVERNOR HERNANDO DE SOTO, PROCEEDING IN HIS CONQUEST, WENT ONWARD, AND HOW THE INDIANS WISHED TO KILL OR CAPTURE HIM THROUGH DECEIT, IN ORDER TO LIBERATE A CACIQUE HE HAD WITH HIM, AND HOW A CACIQUE GAVE A BLOW TO THE GOVERNOR WHICH BATHED HIS TEETH IN BLOOD. AND OTHER MATTERS SUITABLE TO THE DISCOURSE OF THE HISTORY ARE TREATED. On the eleventh of August of the same year, the Governor departed from Ocale with fifty on horseback and one hundred foot soldiers in search of Apalache, because it was rumored that it had many people, and Luis de Moscoso remained behind with the rest of the army to see what happened farther on; and that day they went to sleep at Itaraholata, a good town with plenty of corn. There an Indian attacked Captain Maldonado and badly wounded his horse and would have pulled the lance from his hands if the Governor had not arrived by chance of fortune, although Maldonado was a good nobleman and one of the most valiant of that army; but the Indians of that land are very bellicose and indomitable and strong people. The next day they went to Potano, and the next day, Wednesday, they arrived at Utinamocharra, and from there they went to the town of MalaPaz , which name was given it because Juan de Aiiasco, having captured on the road thirty persons of that cacique, he [the cacique] sent the message that he wished peace, so that they might give them back to him, and he sent in his stead a vassal to negotiate with him. He [Aiiasco] believed that it was the cacique himself and gave his people to him. Following this, this Indian fleeing from the Christians the next day, a noble greyhound from Ireland plunged after him into the multitude of Indians that were on a densely wooded hill [arcabuco]. It rushed to the clamor and entered among all the Indians; and although it passed by many, not one did it seize but the one who had fled, who was among the multitude, and it held him by the fleshy 262 ~ THE DE SOTO CHRONICLES part of the arm in such a manner that the Indian was thrown down and apprehended. The next day the Christians arrived at a pretty town, where they found much food and many very delicious small chestnuts piled up. These are native chestnuts; but the trees which bear them are no taller than two palms of earth, and thus they grow in burrs covered with bristles. 24 There are other chestnuts in the land, which the Spaniards saw and ate, which are the same as those from Spain, and they grow on chestnut trees just as large and mighty, and with the same leaf and bristles or burrs, just as plump and of very good flavor. This army went from there to a river that they call [the river] of the Discords, and he who gave this relation wished not to mention the reason, because he is an honest man, not disposed to relate the guilts or frailties of his friends. That day they made a bridge of pines, since there were many there, and the next day, Sunday, they crossed that river with as much or more hardship than the one at Ocale. The following day, Monday, they arrived at Aguacaleyquen, and Rodrigo Rangel and Villalobos, two gentlemen , equestrians but gentlemen (I say equestrians because in this army they were men on horseback), captured in a cornfield an Indian man and woman, and she showed them where the corn was concealed, and the Indian man led Captain Baltasar de Gallegos to where he captured seventeen persons, and among them an Indian woman, daughter of the cacique, for it seemed reasonable that this would make her father come in peace; but he wished to liberate her without that, and his deceptions and tricks were no less than those of these conquistadors. On the twenty-second of August a great multitude of Indians appeared, and the Governor, seeing that the land already showed itself to be more populated and better supplied, sent eight on horseback with all dispatch to call the maestre de campo, Luis de Moscoso, in order that with all the army [at Ocale] he should come to join with him; and the maestre de campo had no small diligence in carrying out that command, and on the fourth of September he arrived where the Governor was, and all were...
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